Written By: Jim Greenberg

The new “Green Climate Fund” proposed today by the UN could provide renewable energy to developing countries and help keep global temperatures from exceeding a 2°C increase over pre-industrial levels.Today, the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change has proposed the “Green Climate Fund”, a new funding idea set to help developing countries adapt to climate change by increasing financing for renewable technologies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a report by the World Future Council, if the new fund provides “feed-in tariffs” for developing countries, the financing and connection to the electricity grid of large-scale renewable systems would play an important role in keeping temperatures below a hazardous 2oC global increase.

With feed-in tariffs, owners of small- or large-scale solar and wind arrays receive a guaranteed price for their electricity over 20 years, ensuring that investors get a return on their capital. Feed-in tariffs have been associated with rapid boosts in renewable energy output in developed countries, including Italy and Germany.

The WFC report urges the UN to make a one billion euro fund accessible as soon as possible to test the feed-in tariff scheme in three countries: one developing country and two that are slightly more advanced. This would determine which country would benefit the most from the one to three megawatts of clean energy produced, while discovering and correcting any anomalies before much larger amounts of funding become available.

The proposal of the new fund is an attempt to achieve the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – addressing needs of developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the threats of climate change. The fund aims to promote a paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient pathways in developing countries while simultaneously reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.